


Acetone

by ZaliaChimera



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Angst, Bad Ending, Canon Character of Color, Canon Lesbian Character, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mind Control, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 04:53:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3434264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZaliaChimera/pseuds/ZaliaChimera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and they are all so very short of friends these days. Spoilers for S3M60</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acetone

The gates of Abel Township stand open and rusted these days. There are no guards, just a thick hedge of blue flowers to keep away the zombies. Maxine could walk right up to it if she wanted to, could probably walk through the gates and back to the little building that used to be her home. The people inside wouldn’t care, not unless she was overtly aggressive. They’re docile unless provoked, happy and smiling and utterly careless.

She had seen someone get torn apart by zombies in London, and the rest of the work crew had done nothing. Kept walking by, vacant smiles on their faces like nothing in the world worried them.

It could have been her. It had been her.

Maxine creeps closer to the fence. Bushes have started to entangle with the wire. Janine would never have stood for it. She remembered her insistence that every bit of vegetation that could potentially hide an enemy be cut down. Out of habit, Maxine stoops, pulling up the small bush out of the dry ground. She tosses it aside and leans against the fence, her fingers curling through the wire as she peers through.

 

There are new buildings since she left. The old hospital has been pulled down, replaced with a newer building. Some kind of research centre. The comms shack too is gone, converted to housing. Abel had never been so populous as it is now. People had been shipped in once Moonchild took control. Maxine had recognised some of them; researchers mainly. It’s the loss of the farmhouse that’s the biggest shock, the old walls which had withstood so much torn down and replaced with an ugly modern building, the entrance to the underground facility and god knows what Moonchild is researching down there.

There’s a new comms building close by, and Maxine sneaks along the length of the fence to get close to it. They’ve never seen inside. It’s one of the few buildings which is guarded. But they think there’s something in there, a device to keep transmitting the control signal.

She spots movement out of the corner of her eye and ducks down behind another patch of scrub and a sapling. Dark hair, scruffy hoodie. The only thing out of place is the smile, vacant lobotomised happiness, and she remembers how good it had felt; no fear, no doubt, just perfect, unswerving certainty.

“Sam…”

A hand closes on her shoulder and she stifles a sound, reaching for her gun instead and whipping ‘round.

The man in front of her chuckles and holds up his hands. “Sorry Doc. Didn’t mean to startle you. Now can you put the gun away? I might heal but it hurts like a bitch.”

“Simon you-” She shakes her head but holsters her weapon, lips pursed in disapproval. He ignores that and crouches next to her, picking absently at blades of grass. “Is everything alright?”

“No,” he says bluntly, gaze fixed at the building where the farmhouse used to be. “Everything is awful. But awful the same way as yesterday so I guess that counts as alright.”

Maxine doesn’t answer. She watches as Sam heads into the comms building. Even if not for the smile, she likes to think that she’d know something was wrong. The way he walks, there’s no slouch in him now, gait perfectly even, almost military. Exactly the same as every other person in Abel, nearly every other person left. Oh, there are pockets here and there, people with a natural immunity, or who the Comansys rebels managed to get to before Moonchild had used the ZRD. They’ve collected as many as they can and dispersed them around the country in the hope that maybe, maybe there’s some way to reverse this.

“I used to tell Jenny she should smile more,” Simon says quietly. Maxine hums but doesn’t reply and he continues. “She’s got a beautiful smile. One of those secret ones y’know? Where she looks at you and you know it’s just for you and no-one else.” He grips the fence and leans back to stare at the sky, letting the wire hold his weight. “Makes me sick to see her smiling now.”

Maxine is silent for a few moments, picking out people as they move, all the faces that she recognises, the ones that she’d joked with or treated in the hospital. “I told Paula the same thing. She never believed me. Always thought I was joking.”

“Women eh?” Simon says, his laugh like broken glass. “Amy would’ve threatened to kill me for saying anything like that.” He pauses and Maxine doesn’t even try to interpret the expression that passes over his face. “Hate seeing her smile like this too.”

Maxine tears her gaze away from the movement for a moment to look at him, really look. He’s changed, of course he has. There’s the delicate pattern of scales which spreads down his neck and the length of his spine, the canines which are too sharp for any human, eyes which, in the right light, are slit pupilled and yellow. She tries not to think about his state of mind, but at his most lucid he jokes like always, flirts with Louise and whoever else is around whenever he gets the chance.

At his worst, well, she’s seen the wounds, the ones that don’t always heal right, found him curled up crying and puking blue liquid that smells of ammonia.

She’s seen more of him than she ever wanted to, done things to him, experiments, which she would have balked at performing on a human once upon a time. But he’s one of their best hopes for finding a way to stop this. The few people like him, treated by Van Ark, seem to have more resilience to them, more immunity.

Why him and not Paula?

He tenses up beside her, muscles taut as he leans forward and there is such a look of longing on his face that it makes Maxine’s heart ache despite everything. She knows that look, she’s worn it enough herself whenever they’ve slipped into London and she’s spotted Paula there leaving the Comansys building, as happy as Maxine’s ever seen her.

Janine de Luca was never meant to be beholden to anyone. For all their differences, the sight of her blindly obedient and smiling makes Maxine want to throw up.

Simon’s gloved hands tighten on the fence, one hand reaches for his sidearm. She’s seen him shoot now, the improvement that months of practice have wrought. She reaches out and grabs his wrist.

“You’ll get us killed,” she hisses.

 

“Would that be so bad?” he asks.

“You’ll get us taken to her,” Maxine says, and that seems to have more effect. Who knows what Moonchild could do to any one of them.

“I just- she wouldn’t want this, Maxine,” he says plaintively. “She’d hate it. I can’t get over the thought of her, trapped in her own head, watching what happens and- and screaming. It’s horrible.” The way that he says it makes her wonder if that’s something he’s familiar with, if that was how it had been when the zombies had…

No, no she can’t think of that, won’t let herself.

“Paula would too.” It’s as much of a concession as she can make to him. If it would help, she’d blow the place up herself.

They stay longer than they should, until the light starts to fade. They watch as an evening meal is served, each person eating in unison. There’s no chatter or joking around the tables, no music. The line for the showers is more orderly than they’d ever managed before.

Simon is terrifyingly still, unmoving even when Maxine has to shift to work the cramp out of her legs. He barely seems to breathe. She’s not sure whether he needs to anymore, or if it’s just something that he does out of habit.

Finally the lights go out around the township, leaving them in almost perfect darkness except for the bright stars above.

Simon sighs and moves and stretches out, then turns to offer her a hand up. “We should get going. They’ll be wondering where we’ve gone.”

Maxine pauses for a moment before taking his hand, letting him pull her to her feet. He gives her a surprised look, but it doesn’t last long, and then he’s pulled her into a hug, arm around her shoulder as he buries his face against her hair. She stands stiff in his arms, not able to return the gesture, but not quite able to make herself pull away.

He does, eventually, and gives a strained laugh, hiding his face behind his hand. “Sorry Doc, dunno what came over me.”

“Don’t make a habit of it,” Maxine replies. She doesn’t sound as disapproving as she wants to.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Simon says. He turns his back resolutely on the walls of Abel and starts to walk away.

Maxine glances back one last time and follows him.


End file.
